Prime Cuts

Slices of great NFL content from around the web

Phil Simms: If New England plays the same defense and dares Joe Flacco to throw it outside…he’ll throw it outside…What do people want John Elway to say? “Tim Tebow’s gonna be our QB for the next five years no matter what”? I think that’s what the group on Tim Tebow’s side wants, and you just can’t do that…There’s still some unanswered questions…Kansas City the second time around held him to three; New England, second time around - you know, a defense none of us look upon as great - look what they did.

Jim Rome: The second thing I hear from Tebow fans is, “If the team would just turn him loose, he’d be fine.”

Phil Simms: Well, you know…they turned him loose - I don’t know what else they want the Broncos to do…what’s gonna have to change is the execution - the passing game. The option game that everybody talks about, from start to finish, let’s be honest: IT DID NOT WORK. What worked, is they just lined it up and they could run over you. That worked. Yeah, he had some runs, and he had some scrambles. But the option game overall…it was negative yards.

I come out of the games, the Tim Tebow haters say to me, “You’re too easy on him.” But then the Tim Tebow people go, “You’re way too hard on him,” and I go, “Oh my gosh, all of you. Please. Shut up.” I am definitely not biased about it. He is a terrific kid - it is true. His work habits are, even by NFL standards, especially at quarterback - they are tremendous. I give him all that. I can’t wait to see him next year. I want to see a different thrower next year than the guy I saw this year.

Well, now. I've been hitting Simms pretty hard here of late for likening Tim Tebow to Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, but I have to give him credit. When he's not calling games and presumably worrying about Nielson ratings, he doesn't pull punches. But at the same time, shouldn't we be insulted? Does CBS not think we want honest commentary during games like Simms provided to Jim Rome here? Guess not...

I thought this exchange between Williams and McKee this afternoon on The Drive was interesting because, in theory, it provides some insight into Eddie Royal. When pressed, Big Al said that he had visited Rod Smith just today and Smith told him that it would have been hard to play receiver with Tim Tebow because of the inconsistency, and that staying disciplined in routes would be hard because one would rarely be rewarded with the ball. Williams then went on to relate this story back to Eddie being frustrated.

We'd had reports during the Brandon Lloyd trade speculation that Royal wanted out of Denver as well. Now that he's a free agent--if we believe Big Al and Rod Smith--Royal has likely played his last game in a Broncos uniform.

On a side note, I'd been wondering all year what Rod Smith thought of Tebow as a quarterback, because in my world, Rod Smith is both God and the orignal hardest working guy in football.

If you want to hear the exchange, forward to 28:25 of Hour 2. By the way, Big Al thinks the Broncos are going with QB Nick Foles from Arizona as their first-round draft pick. Big Al accurately predicted the Broncos would draft Von Miller last year months before anyone else.

I can tell you this: I know a lot of people want him - CBS wants him on their pregame show next week. Privately, the Broncos really want him to lay low this offseason and work on his game - and that would be the smart thing to do.

Tebow has openly said that football isn't everything, and that his career provides a platform for his personal and philanthropic endeavors. Granted, he presumably won't be going on a nationwide book tour this offseason, but Tebow still has responsibilities to Nike, Jockey and FRS. It will be interesting to see how he balances all of this with the acknowledged need to improve as a passer over the coming months.

Update 4:05pm ET: In between Mike Klis doing a complete 180 on his assessment of Tebow to help sell copies of his new book fulfill a New Year's resolution, Tim tersely told Klis that he won't be doing the pregame show (in even fewer words). It's probably the most abrupt response we've ever read/heard from the normally sunny and gracious Tebow. Here's Chris Chase's take for SC.

Obviously, a lot of things can and should change about how Tim Tebow throws the football, and maybe the muscle mass isn’t helping him. But surely, there are about 30 other things he can work on before he starts to worry about that: where he holds the ball, where he starts the throwing motion, making everything more compact, getting his feet right. When he gets those things down, and he still can’t throw the ball, then maybe we put him on the “Christian Bale before The Fighter” weight loss plan.

And if you take the muscle off of Tebow, doesn’t he break fewer tackles, get sacked more easily and lose a lot of his ability to keep a play alive? And if Tim Tebow can’t do those things, is he still Tim Tebow?

I think what you’d be left with is a guy who looks more like a prototypical quarterback, but would still have major issues with throwing accuracy, and he wouldn’t be a spectacular runner, either. Congratulations. You’ve created Mark Sanchez.

The Oakland Raiders want to talk to both of the coordinators on the team that won their division.

The Raiders have received permission to interview Broncos defensive coordinator Dennis Allen and offensive coordinator Mike McCoy for their head coaching vacancy, ESPN’s Adam Schefter is reporting.

It’s an interesting strategy from Raiders owner Mark Davis and G.M. Reggie McKenzie. It makes sense from a competitive standpoint to consider bringing in coaches from the team ahead of them in the standings, but it may also be a tactic designed at gathering intelligence on a division rival.

If that’s what it is, it sounds like a strategy that Al Davis would love.

Mark Davis, your haircut still sucks, no matter how many of our coordinators you interview.

A certain sports columnist from Chicago — we’ll call him “Rick Morrissey” — writes that Tim Tebow isn’t a good quarterback and that God doesn’t care whether the Broncos win a football game…The columnist then gets inundated with emails from Broncos fans, Tebow fans and, for some reason, what seems to be most of the white population of Oklahoma…

...I don’t think I’ve seen a bigger emotional investment in whether one player wins a football game. People see a Tebow victory as proof of all sorts of things, mostly that God is squarely on his side…

...There was an assumption in many of the emails I received that if you’re not on board with the Tebow movement, you must be anti-religion, pro-abortion, anti-gun rights, Obama-loving and in all likelihood attracted to farm animals. And you know this about me because I don’t think Tebow is a particularly good quarterback? I also got the sense that being a practicing Catholic is not quite Christian enough for some of you. I’ll have to work on that.

I can’t tell you how many emails I received that included the terms “Michael Vick,’’ “thugs” and “end zone celebrations.’’ As in, would you rather have that than Tebow’s overt religious enthusiasm? If I recall, Vick served prison time for his dog-fighting cruelty. And if I’m not mistaken, we’re called to forgive one another. Apparently, there’s something in the fine print about Vick that excludes forgiveness.

That sliver-sized space for absolution is what worries me about Tebow’s future. People have constructed a world for him in which there is no room for mistakes, only perfection. And if he should stumble? What then? It’s frightening how much belief followers have put in a 24-year-old. I feel sorry for him. I feel sorry for the woman who marries him. I can’t imagine the glare of the spotlight and the pressure to be sinless. Tebow seems like a very nice guy with a very big heart. It’s the people who worship him, rather than just admire him, who make my skin crawl.

Denver’s defense lost this game, but Tebow was still pretty terrible: he completed just 9 of 26 passes, for 136 yards. (John 1:36 – “When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God!’”) One 3rd-and-19 pass late in the third quarter was so wobbly and off the mark that Denver chose to kick a field goal rather than go for it on fourth down, trailing 42-7. The message was clear: Denver coach John Fox had no faith that Tebow could convert.

After the game, Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey was asked if Tebow should be the starter next season. Bailey looked the other way, providing no answer.

Champ has hedged his QB bet several times this year. First he was in the Orton camp. Then he switched to Tebow's. After the KC loss, he was neutral. With the win against Pittsburgh, it was safe to leave the house again.

Now, mum's the word. Can't say I blame him. It's best to declare after the fact so you're on the right side of history.

Soon they were all praying together, while a protective cocoon of Tebow’s people formed around the pair, getting huffy when a couple of reporters stopped to observe. “Private family time,” one said, which was strange, since the scene was a hard-to-miss public spectacle, like so much of the Tebowing phenomenon, and it lasted considerably longer than any Denver drive.

He comes off as exceedingly earnest and sincere, though his religious invocations can have the same repetitive effect of those uttered during a Miss America pageant. Being uncomfortable with them doesn’t make one a hater or a heathen, just one of many who wonder if there is an appropriate time and place and if the football environment doesn’t always have to be one of them. Maybe as part of the growth process Tebow will figure that out.

As he always does, he thanked his teammates for their support and effort immediately after praising God. But one was left to surmise that he, the Broncos’ purported leader, should have been with them late Saturday night instead of in the corridor tending to his own personal business, no matter how giving it was. There are times when duty to team has to come first. Surely one of them is in the wake of lopsided and season-ending defeat.

Looking up toward the ceiling, he darted into a back hallway before hesitating. Then he turned around, going back through a door and stopping again. Haley suspected that many rooms at the team facility were bugged so that team administrators could monitor employees’ conversations. Stopping finally in a conference room, Haley said he believed his personal cellphone, a line he used before being hired by the Chiefs in 2009, had been tampered with.

Paranoid? The Chiefs have adamantly denied that they tap phones or listen in on conversations. But as the team enters another period of transition after elevating defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel last week to head coach, interviews with more than two dozen current and former employees suggest that intimidation and secrecy are among the Chiefs’ principal management styles — and that Haley wasn’t the only one with paranoid thoughts.